Council fails to provide figures on Derbyshire care home staff who have been tested for coronavirus

Derbyshire County Council is not providing the figures for how many of its care home staff have been tested for Covid-19 or how many have tested positive, negative or inconclusive.
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This is despite the council revealing that more than 100 of its care home residents have tested positive for the virus and 18 have died after contracting Covid-19.

Ten days ago the authority was asked for key figures on care home staff testing.

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These were for the number tested and of those how many received a positive test result, a negative result or an inconclusive result.

Chesterfield Royal HospitalChesterfield Royal Hospital
Chesterfield Royal Hospital

However, the authority is yet to provide those figures despite being repeatedly prompted as a matter of public record, transparency and openness.

In May the council said that testing of its care staff had not yet started but that it was starting it in line with government announcements.

It said on May 7: “Testing for all care home residents and staff is currently being rolled out across the country and we’re supporting our staff to be tested in line with the Government’s offer.”

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This was when the news of outbreaks of the virus in care homes across the UK began to surge and overtake the numbers of cases being reported in hospitals.

The council has said that staff at its temporary Covid-only Florence Nightingale home to be opened soon in Belper would all be tested whether they have displayed symptoms or not.

It says 104 residents in its care homes have now tested positive for the virus but the majority of these have since recovered, with 11 still testing positive.

The authority’s home-care service has 700 staff caring for 3,000 vulnerable and elderly residents.

It runs 23 care homes with hundreds of staff and residents.

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Figures for the number of staff to have contracted the virus have not been provided at any stage during the pandemic although testing was not required by government until the start of May.

Today, (Friday, June 5) Kent County Council said care homes are struggling to get staff and residents tested for Covid-19 because swabs do not turn up or those that do are not collected for transport to the laboratory.